I’ll get the ball rolling.

Our manufacturer (Global Energy Services) charge £216 (this price is now 2-3 years old) and we're not having the heat pump serviced because we do it ourselves. Here's what the £216 buys you:

One of our qualified engineers will come to your house and ensure the system is running safely and efficiently. They will service the system and carryout number of tasks including:

Grant charges me £250.80 for a combined service of a 10kW Aerotherm ASHP, plus a 210L pre-plumbed cylinder. 'ServicePlan2' A condition of the product warranty is annual servicing by Grant to preserve the validity. I guess that's the norm.

Here's what the ServicePlan2 covers:

GRANTUK.COM "https://www.grantuk.com/media/5053/grant-serviceplan-ashp-brochure-october-2022-lr.pdf"

50% of it work, 50% of it tyre kicking and tick box visual. I guess that's usual. Total time taken was under 2hrs for the service visit. 

On the occasion I got my former oil boiler fully serviced, (rarely!), it involved a full strip and clean all internal baffle plates, removal of the burner head, new injector, in line filter, etc, and full combustion test. It was a 3hr+ job and cost around £150.

On the flip side, my whole house energy cost is under £1K a year now, compared to the £2.2K I was paying with the old oil boiler. Not due to the ASHP however, but due to solar PV+battery+smart TOU tariff. Electrification of my CH & DHW just allows me to leverage the savings the renewable micro-generation and BESS brings to best advantage.

I have heard of ASHP annual service charges being £300, about 3x the cost to service a small combi gas boiler. ASHP OEMs seem to be taking advantage of a relatively niche heating appliance with limited service option in the marketplace.

The full nuts to soup, 3 Diamond Mitsubishi service package is now £456 annually. It covers heat pump, cylinder and controls, annual service with complete muck out and clean of the oily bits,  operational review and efficiency tweaking to ensure it is operating at optimal, priority response to call out, all parts and labour included. It is good value? I don't know how to answer that. My installer said that there is not a lot to go wrong in the Ecodan system, it is just that any part that does fail has a price tag with multiple zeros attached to it. 

If you are risk averse and really don't like the prospect of an extended wait without heating in the depths of winter then you are a sitting target for this package, cost not withstanding.  If you are relaxed about the repair costs or outage time or just plain skint then clearly you will avoid this. Whether that approach is "good value" I am not sure.

As more heat pumps are installed are more faults going to be chasing a competent engineer to fix them especially if you have no service contract.  I really don't know how to answer that poll.

Mitsubishi do offer lesser cost service packages with a trimmed down offering of benefits too.

Posted by: @abernyte

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3 Diamond Mitsubishi service package is now £456 annually

Very interesting, and thanks for sharing. Honestly, I’m shocked by the price. From what I’ve seen, it seems more like a service and insurance package combined, covering breakdowns, which should typically be covered by the warranty for the first few years. I’m curious if the cover still applies if the heat pump wasn’t serviced for the first few years and then maintenance starts in year 5, for example.

Before Mitsubishi will accept the system into the 3 diamond service package they require an engineers visit and full system check, presumably to ensure it they are not taking on a lemon. So it seems possible to get cover at any time....if you can pay. I am not sure if the price is profiteering or a genuine reflection of the insurance based maintenance cost.

@abernyte I’m also split on the value proposition. I'm questioning the true value behind heat pump services but don’t want to skew anyone’s opinions. I've started to see that warranties are often attached to servicing, which makes it seem like manufacturers want to continue making money after the sale. As you've mentioned, most component failures on a heat pump are very costly to repair. If the compressor goes, that's thousands to replace.

It’s crucial to weigh the cost of regular servicing against the potential savings from avoiding major repairs. While it feels like a money-making strategy, proper maintenance could extend the life of your system and ensure it runs efficiently. However, this raises the question: Are we paying for genuine value or just padding the pockets of manufacturers?

@editor I very much agree, my Daikin is almost a pound a day for the contract (£346 inc. VAT), it might be compared with Russian Roulette! Regards, Toodles.

@toodles and does that cover all repairs/parts/labour if something does go wrong?

@editor Yes, this is their ‘Gold’ service which excludes non-standard add-ons I believe but covers the heat pump and plumbing, but excludes my Sunamp DHW system. (Oooh! I think this is my 1000th. contribution!!!) 😉 Regards, Toodles.

Hmm. A bit of a nuanced answer, methinks.

As I've already mentioned a number of times, our heat pump was installed by Doré Woodman and we were entirely satisfied with their work and service, enough so that we've recommended them several times to various friends and acquaintances who've been considering the move away from fossil fuels. When we had the work done, we got in just before the RHI was replaced, and a requirement of the RHI is that the system is maintained in good working order. Whilst we were aware it's not necessary to get the system serviced for that to be the case, it's certainly an irrefutable bit of evidence we've done our due diligence so we decided we would get the servicing done regularly anyway; after all, we'd have shelled out for servicing the boiler so we weren't spending where we hadn't previously.

DW quoted an annual service at that time as £199 + vat or £796 + vat for a 5 year contract. According to them, an annual service includes:

• Pressure check of system
• Heat pump circuit filter – checked and cleaned
• Valve checkWater stops check
• Primary system full check
• Refrigerant check and top up if required
• Air check in system
• Fuse check to the electrical supply
• Temperature settings check
• Thermostat check
• Yield performance check
• Anti-freeze checked and topped up if required
• All motorized valves checked
• System checked for leaks

I am certainly satisfied they have actually carried out these tasks so am still comfortable with their professionalism. I'm also perfectly happy the price per service (just under £200) is on the reasonable side of industry standards. Is it a fair price for the work they actually carry out? I honestly don't know. However, each time they visit they are more than happy to finish up, have a cuppa and talk through any questions I may have about possible tweaks in the light of current technology or so forth. As a result, the combination of peace of mind the kit has been serviced, the yearly pick-of-the-brains catch up and the piece of paper we can wave at the RHI lot is, I feel, reasonable value for the price we're charged. I certainly don't feel ripped off.

As I've said before, all I'm after is a good job for a fair price and I feel I'm getting that here. If I were being asked to fork out upwards of £400 a year my answer might well have an "off" in it, but that's not the case here.